Industry Q&A: Scot Walker, Parify

Our progression and development in the world of lighting has lead us to look at controllability. With control comes increased flexibility and options. The whole world has moved on since the days of halogen lighting, and the current trend in all aspects of life is to have full control. The impact of this move will see us develop an ever growing range of intelligent lights and controls that give the user multiple options of colour, brightness and beam angle.

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How will using smartphone controlled lighting transform the industry?

Using a ‘mesh’ of lights installed in the store, from ceilings to cabinets and showcases to windows, we can wirelessly group lights and even zone them. By giving the retailers the ability to create brighter and darker areas in the store, to dim all of the lights for a function, or change the colour of the ceiling lights, it gives them control. The old way of doing this was having multiple lights on multiple circuits and multiple dimmers and multiple different coloured lights for different effects. The costs of this was enormous. Controllability gives options.

If retailers want to have the smartphone controlled lights, do they need to refit the existing store lighting?

It will mean a re-fit, but it can be done zone by zone. Re-fit the windows first, then the general ceiling lights etc, so expansion and improvement can be done as the budget permits. The app is available in Google Play or the app store and is free. The gateway that controls the system is inexpensive at under £100. Each light then has a QR code which is scanned by the tablet/smartphone which recognises it into the system as a new device, and from there, it’s just about setting the light up in the way you want it. Simple!